Life Drawing

An award-winning and provocative novel about women’s bodies, sex, autonomy - and the power of the image.

Hypothetically, would you want to live forever but invisible, or a short life seen? Hypothetically, would you give up wine forever or sex for ten years? Hypothetically, would you show a friend someone else’s nude?

Maisie and Charlie meet at a life drawing class as undergraduates - she’s the model, he’s an artist. Their immediate connection carries them across two decades as they navigate the slippery dynamics of friendship, estrangement, and family.

Maisie’s story is every woman’s, and Emily Lighezzolo’s bold debut interrogates the collision of art and gaze, desire and consent, muse and meaning. This is a love story. At its core - a woman’s body - seen, touched, loved, hated, commodified, and reclaimed. Life Drawing is an award-winning and unflinching novel for our times.

‘A tender story of learning how to live and how to love. Emily Lighezzolo writes with her whole heart on the page.’ ALLEE RICHARDS

‘Moving and insightful, Life Drawing picks up on contemporary debates about bodies, control and volition.’ QUEENSLAND LITERARY AWARDS